Summit Salon
Academy Kansas City
For-profit College in Independence, MO. Median 10-year earnings $24,811.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $24,811, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Graduates leave owing a median of $11,938 — modest by four-year standards.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
The federal six-year graduation rate is not published here — typically because the entering cohort this measure follows is too small or too atypical to report. Treat completion as unknown rather than assuming either direction. First-year retention of 88% shows the cohort holds together through the hardest year. At 11:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university. This is a for-profit short-program school. That is not disqualifying, but it does mean verifying accreditation, transferability of credits, and job-placement claims directly rather than trusting the category. The undergraduate body is just 180, which shapes everything from class size to how often a required course is offered.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 180 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $18,601 annually once grants are applied. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($16,519 versus $23,914), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. 67% of students receive grant aid, averaging $5,647 — common but not automatic. 71% of students borrow federally, so debt is the norm rather than the exception.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 22 students
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $16,519 |
| $30–48k | $19,269 |
| $48–75k | $21,741 |
| $75–110k | $19,101 |
| $110k+ | $23,914 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 128 of these 180 students, totalling $999,725 — an average of $7,810 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Jackson County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)